Welcome back to another Vargulf post. Getting sick of these yet? If so, I’m very sorry. There are quite a few. The good news is that they’re categorized under cosplay/conventions so once we move on from this, if anyone wants to find the process, they can do so under the categories at the bottom, all neatly hidden away. Here goes!

The liquid plastic I used was very similar (same makers) to the liquid silicone in that it had two parts. Stir Part A thoroughly, Stir Part B thoroughly, Stir them together thoroughly, Pour—those are pretty much the steps in a nutshell. Now, I definitely made some mistakes in this phase, so here are some important things to note:

ONLY use small amounts at a time. I made the mistake of thinking I would need a lot, just like in the silicone phase. I didn’t. As soon as you combine them, they start the hardening process. It isn’t like the silicone where you have a window of time in which to pour it. It is pretty much Sprite-looking liquid to solid block in two minutes. I was seriously startled.

The plastic will be HOT. I knew that this was the case from reading the instructions, but I still underestimated just how hot they were talking. You can burn yourself if you’re not careful. I didn’t use any, but I would recommend rubber gloves for sure.

Constantly be swirling. When you pour it into your mask, swirl, baby, swirl!

Unlike the silicone that was pretty colors, these were both clear-ish. It looked like club soda and watered down mountain dew to me, but didn’t have the same viscosity. The reason for the clearness, I would venture to guess, is that this plastic is meant to come out white when it hardens.

1) I placed the silicone mold into the plaster cast I had made in the silicone stage. You’ll see now that you have created a nice little bowl for your plastic to fill into your mold instead of just holding the mold and hoping it retains its shape as you pour the plastic in. It won’t.

2) As I said above, the first step was to stir them separately in their own containers before combining. I did this on top of a towel in case of spillage.

3) Then I combined the liquids.

4) I poured probably a quarter of the amount into the mask and began swirling it around.

5) This is where the aforementioned mistakes came into play. I seriously looked over what felt like two seconds into the swirling onto the mask and saw that my container of liquid was a completely solid, white chunk. I think the exact sound I made was, “Whaaaaannoooooooouhhhhhh.” Then, I looked into the mask and saw that it was hardened. Seriously, SO FAST. This is why the swirling to cover every edge was so important. I was mostly happy with what I had done, but I definitely filled too much liquid into the snout area and new I would have to carve some of it out later. That being said, I’d rather make sure every single nook and cranny (all the teeth, under the tongue, etc.) got filled then have to glue in some teeth somehow later.

Yeahhhhh, this was fun. This block was created in about a minute.

6) Then I let the mask dry in front of a fan. Again, judging by the Tupperware full of a now unusable white plastic rock, this stuff hardens in a couple of minutes. That being said, it takes 6 hours for it to actually “cure” entirely. So you can pretty much leave it alone to do its thing.

7) After a handful of hours, I was really curious and gently removed it from the mold. I was REALLY happy with how it turned out. It doesn’t fit snuggly because, again, I filled up the snout too much and will have to carve out and area for my nose to nestle in, but other than that, I think it looks great for a first try.

Eeek! LBCC is almost here. Still so much to do! Check back for the final stages: cutting, carving, and sanding it to fit properly; painting the surface; affixing straps to go around my head; and the final touches. Also, I will give a spoiler alert before the final posts, but just so you know, I’m going to post a picture of the Vargulf (you’ll see who it is and that will be a spoiler for Hemlock Grove) so that you can see how close I got to the original character. Just a heads up!